Paruppu Usili

Paruppu usili is one of my favourite dishes. It allows us to experiment with various vegetables and we can have it alone with rice or serve it along with sambar, more kuzhambu, vetha kuzhambu or rasam. We can use beans, cabbage, capsicum or vaazhapoo to make this.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup toor dal
• 2 tsps channa dal
• 3 green chillies
• 4 red chillies
• 2 cups of vegetable (beans/cluster beans/capsicum/cabbage/capsicum/vaazhapoo)
• 2 tbsp oil
• Mustard seeds
• Salt to taste
• Mustard seeds

Preparation:

• Wash & soak the dals for about 1 hour.
• Drain the water completely and grind the dal with 1-2 green chilli and red chilli and some salt. Don't add any water while grinding the dal.
  
• Take the ground paste and either steam it for some time or fry it in some oil till golden brown. Crumble the paste into small pieces.
  
• Steam the vegetable.
• Heat some oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds. Once they sputter add some jeera and asafoetida.
• If you had steamed the dal then add the crumbled usili and saute till golden brown. Then add the vegetable. Add the necessary amount of salt. Saute for another 3 - 4 minutes.
  
• If the usili had been fried instead of steamed then add the usili and add the vegetable also. Add the necessary amount of salt. Saute for 3 - 4 minutes.
• Serve hot.